10 No-Carve Pumpkin Decorating Ideas

Let's start with one of my favourites. Choose a pumpkin with a great crooked stem. Make a simple witch hat from black cardstock, felt or inexpensive black craft foam. You can keep it simple or decorate the hat with twine, dried leaves, moss, tiny pinecones, feathers, dried flowers or a little buckle. Set the hat slightly crooked over the pumpkin stem. You can add a simple witch face with washable paint or leave the pumpkin completely natural. I actually love the idea of no face at all. Just an old crooked pumpkin wearing a witch hat. Sometimes that's enough.

This one is beautiful for Halloween and fall decorating. Gather a few interesting leaves outside — smaller leaves work particularly well. Press them beneath heavy books until they're fairly flat and dry. Then arrange them around your pumpkin and use decoupage medium or another suitable craft adhesive to attach the leaves to the surface. Try a wreath of leaves around the stem, a trail of leaves down one side, a botanical pattern, or one beautiful leaf centred on the front. You can use colourful autumn leaves or darker dried leaves for something moodier. This would look especially pretty on a white pumpkin.

This is the more sophisticated cousin of the pressed-leaf pumpkin. Choose a white, cream or pale-coloured pumpkin and add black silhouettes of ferns, leaves, branches, wildflowers, herbs or vines. You can paint them freehand or use one of our Hungry Raven Halloween printable silhouettes as a tracing template. Keep the design simple — a single black branch sweeping across one side of a pale pumpkin can look much more striking than covering the entire thing. Very Halloween. Without screaming Halloween.

This one is ridiculously easy — and kids will love it. Take strips of white gauze, cheesecloth or torn white fabric and wrap them loosely around the pumpkin. Don't make the layers too neat. Cross them. Twist them. Leave gaps. Tuck in two large googly eyes or make your own eyes from cardstock. Let the eyes peek out between the mummy wrappings. You can make a whole little family of mummy pumpkins in different sizes.

White pumpkins are perfect for this. Paint or draw simple black ghost faces onto them. That's it. Try different expressions — one surprised, one grumpy, one sleepy, one terrified, one ridiculously happy. Group several little white pumpkins together and suddenly you've got a whole gathering of tiny ghosts. Kids could each design their own ghost personality. Give them names if you want. Because apparently we're naming Halloween decorations now. And I'm completely fine with that.

If you have an old damaged book that is no longer useful — or inexpensive decorative paper made to look like book pages — turn it into Halloween décor. Tear the paper into irregular strips or pieces and use decoupage medium to attach them around the pumpkin. Don't worry about lining everything up perfectly. Layer the edges slightly. Once dry, you can leave the pumpkin as-is or add a black silhouette over the paper — a raven, a bat, a witch, a crescent moon, a spider or a crooked tree. Tie a piece of black ribbon or natural twine around the stem. It has a wonderful old-library-meets-Halloween feel.

Tip: If you're using real book pages, choose a damaged or unwanted book rather than destroying one that's still useful.

This one connects perfectly with our DIY Twig Spiderwebs. Start with a white or pale pumpkin and use black string, thin yarn or embroidery thread to create a spiderweb pattern across the surface. Secure the string discreetly with tiny removable adhesive dots or small dabs of craft glue. Start with several lines radiating outward, then weave curved sections between them to create the web. Add a little handmade paper spider — or several. You can also reverse the colours: orange pumpkin, cream string, black spider.

This might be the ultimate kids' pumpkin. Paint a pumpkin with chalkboard paint according to the product directions and let it dry completely. Then hand over the chalk. Kids can draw ghosts, monsters, jack-o'-lantern faces, spiders, names and Halloween messages. And when they're tired of the design? Wipe it off and start again. One pumpkin can become something completely different every day leading up to Halloween.

Halloween doesn't always have to be orange and black. This one can be really beautiful. Use dried flowers, grasses, seed heads and little pieces of foliage to decorate around the pumpkin stem — dried hydrangea, wheat, lavender, small dried flowers, ferns, eucalyptus, dried grasses or seed pods. Attach small pieces around the top to create a little dried botanical crown. For Halloween, tuck in a few black feathers or tiny paper bats. It's still seasonal and slightly spooky, but much softer.

Obviously we need one. Choose a white, cream or traditional orange pumpkin and add a simple black raven silhouette to the front. You can paint it freehand or use our printable raven template. Keep everything else simple. Tie black ribbon, natural twine or a strip of torn black fabric around the stem. You could add a tiny crescent moon above the raven, or a bare branch beneath its feet. But don't overdo it. Let the raven be the star. And yes, I think this one deserves a place in the Hungry Raven kitchen every October.